Google isn't the only brand developing driverless cars. Nissan, which rose 30 percent on Interbrand's new Best Global Brands report, has unveiled NSC-2015, a prototype version of its Leaf electric vehicle "that can park itself, come when you call it and warn you about burglars," as Forbes notes. "The car can’t drive itself down the street," or and wouldn't even be legal in Japan (yet). Still, it's an intriguing move for the Japanese automaker as it works out the kinks on the cloud-based technology.

"When a smartphone sends an instruction to park, the instruction enters the cloud to the Nissan Global Data Center," explained Tooru Futami, engineering director at Nissan's Electronics Engineering Development Division. "There, a car health check is performed. The system decides if the car is OK to enter automatic driving mode. If everything with the car is OK, the automatic driving mode is enabled."

See more of the test car, cruising driverless at around 5 kmh at CEATEC in Japan, billed as Asia's biggest tech show, below.